The Marvel at Much Marcle

Claire Saul visits a Herefordshire property with centuries of history, amazing stories, a major collection of privately owned art and a great green philosophy

- Claire Saul

Tucked in the Herefordshire countryside at Much Marcle, not far from its border with Gloucestershire, is Hellens Manor. Now presenting as a Tudor/Jacobean home, it predates those eras by some margin; the earliest known record shows that Harold Godwinson, later King Harold II, owned the estate in 1057. Hellens's long, tree-lined driveway Monk's Walk is a clue to the next inhabitants: Norman monks, who would troop along this route to the local church for mass each day.

One of the longest continuously occupied houses in Britain, there follows a rollcall of Hellens owners associated with some of the major names and events of British history.

Among them is Isolde Mortimer, whose steward Walter Helyon gave his name to the property. Isolde's brother Roger ordered the murder of King Edward II in 1327 and the delivery of the Great Seal of England to Isabella of France and the future King Edward III, at Hellens. Isolde's son James was educated with Edward III's eldest son, Edward the Black Prince. The prince stayed at Hellens in 1347, and today's visitors will be able to spot his three-feathered crest on the hooded stone fireplace in the atmospheric Stone Hall.